Hundreds of demonstrators converged on the California state capitol in Sacramento Thursday voicing their opposition to a Trump administration plan to expand offshore drilling. The plan could open nearly all US coastlines to oil and gas drilling. (Feb. 8)
AP

The Trump administration is trying to expand offshore oil drilling and slash safety regulations at the same time. This is a recipe for disaster.

The Interior Department’s proposal to open up nearly all coastal waters to offshore drilling has been met with a striking level of opposition, even by the standards of the Trump era. When the comment period ended last month, approximately 1.35 million comments had been registered against the plan. There was bipartisan resistance from governors in all but one of the coastal states that do not currently allow offshore drilling. And 12 attorneys general signed a letter saying they intend to sue the administration if the plan goes forward.

In response to this backlash, the message from the administration has been, again and again, that the risks from offshore drilling have been minimized — that now, it’s safe.

I was on the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, which killed 11 workers and spewed 3 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico eight years ago Friday. I was tapped to serve because, among other things, I led the implementation of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Restoration Plan.

Our job on the Deepwater Horizon commission was to investigate the root causes of the tragedy and to make recommendations on how to prevent and mitigate the impact of future spills. But over the past few months, the administration has been quietly rolling back the regulations that were adopted in the wake of the disaster.

The rules the commission suggested were not designed to be retributive. They are not overly restrictive. They are basic, commonsense standards to make sure that the companies we allow to profit off of our shared resources do not destroy them in the process.

The next time someone insists that offshore drilling is safe, I suggest asking them three questions:

►First, the Deepwater Horizon tragedy was caused by a series of major safety oversights — from bad cement sealing the well, to multiple faulty valves, to misinterpretation of pressure tests, to a broken gas detection system on board. Can you guarantee that safety lapses and mistakes like these are now being caught before they lead to catastrophe?

Our commission recommended something that, frankly, seemed fairly obvious: having independent auditors inspect safety and pollution prevention equipment. The administration has removed this rule. Instead, the industry itself will perform these checks — just like it did (and, clearly, often failed to do) before the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

►Second, the Deepwater Horizon National Commission report found that the industry’s ability to control a failed well, particularly in extreme conditions, was inadequate. Are these well-control systems now reliable?

For instance, we found that before Deepwater Horizon, studies had suggested that blowout preventers — the last line of defense when it comes to maintaining control of a well — had high failure rates particularly when used in deep water. And that’s exactly what happened in Deepwater Horizon: The blowout preventer didn’t work.

In the wake of our report, industry experts and regulators worked together to negotiate a Well-Control and Blowout Preventer Rule that would establish new safety procedures. The process took six years and thousands of hours of consultation. Today, because of pressure from the industry, this rule is being overhauled. Many of the requirements are being weakened — changes that, taken together, are estimated to save the industry $986 million over the next 10 years.

In addition, many small, independent companies are beginning to move into deep water in the Gulf of Mexico. Yet they often have terrible safety records, and lack the resources required to respond quickly to a spill and pay for cleanup and restoration.

►Third, currently, 97% of the oil produced from offshore drilling in the U.S. comes from the Gulf of Mexico. New environments will bring new, unexpected challenges. Have we proved that companies can navigate challenges specific to the new environments available to them?

As safety procedures for offshore drilling are being weakened, the dangers are growing as it is attempted in new environments. For instance, in the Arctic — a treasure trove of oil resources that’s newly accessible because of melting ice — oil companies could face hurricane-force winds, constant darkness and temperatures below zero degrees Fahrenheit. In these environments, there's no nearby Coast Guard, no nearby cities full of engineers and supplies to fall back on. There are few requirements in place for companies to prove that they’re capable of managing new challenges such as these.

Add it all up, and it’s clear that we must ask these three questions, loudly and often — because if the answer to any of them is no, then chances are there will be a moment in the near future when another well blows and oil starts seeping into the sea. We’ll watch as ecosystems are destroyed, as food supplies are poisoned, as communities are devastated. Coastal cafes and fisheries will be boarded up. Community members will suffer life-altering health consequences. Beaches that were once vibrant and full, places where wildlife thrived and people came together, will be desolate.

And leaders in industry and in government will paint it all as an unpredictable tragedy, a terrible mishap, a sad accident.

Don’t buy it.

Expanding access to drilling is incredibly risky. Weakening vital safety standards is cause for even graver concern. But doing both at the same time? That’s a near-certain recipe for disaster.

Terry Garcia, the CEO of Exploration Ventures, is former Chief Science & Exploration Officer at National Geographic, former assistant secretary of Commerce for Oceans & Atmosphere, and former deputy administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Follow him on Twitter: @terrygarcia